Chicken and Dumpling Casserole

I love this casserole- it takes a little more time than I usually spend on dinner, but it's worth it. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Casserole:
1/2 C. onion, chopped
1/2 C. celery, chopped
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
1/4 C. butter
1/2 C. flour
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. pepper
4 C. chicken broth
1 package frozen green peas
3 C. chicken, cooked & cubed

Dumplings:
2 C. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 C. shortening
2/3 C. milk

(If you don't feel like making your dumplings from scratch, you could substitute 2 C. bisquick baking mix, 1 tsp. basil, and 2/3 C. milk instead)

In large saucepan, sauté onion, celery, and garlic in butter until tender. Add flour, sugar, salt, basil, pepper, and broth; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 1 minute until desired thickness; reduce heat. Add peas and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in chicken. Pour into greased 9x13 baking dish.

For dumplings, combine dry ingredients; cut in shortening; stir in milk all at once until dough just follows. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto casserole (to make 12 dumplings). Bake uncovered at 350° for 30 minutes. Check on dumplings- lift up one in the middle of the pan and see if it's still doughy on bottom. If needed, cover and bake 10-15 more minutes until dumplings are done.

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Parmesan- Dijon Chicken

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3/4 cup Progresso® dry bread crumbs (any flavor)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 3/4 pounds)

1. Heat oven to 375ºF. Mix butter and mustard in shallow dish until well mixed. Mix bread crumbs and cheese in large plastic bag.
2. Dip one piece of chicken at a time into butter mixture, coating all sides. Then place in bag of bread crumbs, seal bag and shake to coat with crumb mixture. Place chicken in single layer in ungreased rectangular pan, 13x9x2 inches.
3. Bake uncovered 20 to 30 minutes, turning once, until juice of chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut.

Prep time: 10 min
Cook Time: 30 min
5 servings

Parmesan Bread Pork Chops

1/3 cup Italian style bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
4 pork boneless butterfly loin chops, 1/2 inch thick (1 1/4 lb)
1 egg, beaten
2 cups diced tomatoes with Italian herbs, undrained (from 28-oz can)
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 small green bell pepper, chopped (1/2 cup)

1. Mix bread crumbs and cheese. Dip pork in egg, then coat with crumb mixture.
2. Spray 12-inch skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium heat. Cook pork in skillet about 5 minutes, turning once, until brown.
3. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pork is slightly pink in center.

Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 17 m4 servings

Chicken-Green Bean Casserole

3 cups of frozen French-style green beans
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup
2 cans (5 ounces each) chunk chicken, drained
1/2 cup sour cream
1 package (6 ounces) chow mein noodles
Paprika, if desired

1. Heat beans, soup and chicken to boiling in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream.

2. Serve hot chicken mixture over noodles; sprinkle with paprika

Serves 4
Prep: 2 min
Cook: 5 min
I usually double the recipe and sometimes put it over rice. Great short and quick meal, my kids love this. There are some variaties of this that are more "casseroly" and they are good too.

Dinner Meat Loaf "Muffins"

These go well with green beans and mashed potatoes.

1 t. olive oil
1 c. finely chopped onion
1/2 c. finely chopped carrot
1 t. dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 c. ketchup, divided
1 1/2 lb. ground beef
1 c. finely crushed saltines (about 20)
2 T. mustard
1 t. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 t. black pepper
2 large eggs
Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Heat olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Add chopped onion, carrot, oregano, and garlic; saute 2 minutes. Cool.
3. Combine onion mixture, 1/2 c. ketchup, and remaining ingredients (except cooking spray) in a large bowl.
4. Spoon meat mixture into 12 muffin pan coated with cooking spray. Top each with 2 t. ketchup. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2 "muffins")

Pork Chops in Cream Sauce

Sorry the picture is kind of small, but it is the best I could find. I really like this recipe.. I have varied it a little as I have made it more often. If you love Pork this will be for you!

6 loin pork chops
1 beef bouillon cube
½ cup water
2 Tablespoons flour
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
¼ cup water
2 Tablespoons finely chopped onion
½ cup dairy sour cream
1 Tablespoon ketchup
1 garlic clove minced

In a large skillet, brown pork chops. Add ½ cup water, brown sugar, onion, ketchup, garlic and bouillon cube. Cover; simmer 30-40 minutes or till tender. Remove chops to serving platter and keep warm. In a small bowl, combine flour with ¼ cup water; slowly add to cooking liquid, stirring constantly. Cook until thickened. Stir in sour cream, heat thoroughly. DO NOT BOIL. Serve sauce over chops.
Makes 6 servings.

Sides to add with it.... Rice or mashed potatoes.

Twice Baked Potatoes

4 Large baking potatoes, scrubbed and trimmed
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
Optional:
Bacon bits
Parsley flakes
chives

Bake potatoes @ 350 for 1.5-1.75 hours. Cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides into a mixing bowl. Mash adding milk, butter, cheese, salt and pepper. Beat until fluffy. Spoon mixture back into potato shells. Place on Cookie sheet an bake @ 350 for 20-30 minutes.
Serves: 8

Crock Pot Spaghetti

I usually do horrible at crock pot recipes but this really turned out good. I did add 1/2 cup of water with all the other ingredients at the beginning and then an extra 2 cups of water when I added the noodles. I didn't want the spaghetti to burn. Just be careful not to add toooo much water or the noodles will taste weird.

CROCK POT SPAGHETTI
Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 tbsp. dry onions
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1 (4 oz.) can mushrooms
3 c. tomato juice
2 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce
1 (4 oz.) pkg. spaghetti, broken in pieces

Directions:
1. Brown ground beef in skillet. Place in crock pot.
2. Add all remaining ingredients (except dry spaghetti) and stir together.
3. Cook on high 4 to 5 hours. Add dry spaghetti and stir in. Cook on high for 1 hour more.
AND of course coat with Parmesan Cheese to make it "Cheezy".

Serves 3-4. See comments on how to double this recipe.

Friendship Amish Bread

This is one of my favorite recipes. It takes a lot of patience (well for me). My neighbor used to make the BEST Amish Bread and I have been working on trying to replicate it for 4 years! Hopefully I will get as good as her.
NOTE: There are some variations of this recipe but I usually pick the most simple and then "sugar" it up! I usually butter the top up and sprinkle LOTS of cinnamon on the top and that really makes it good.

Amish Friendship Bread Recipe

Day 1 - receive the starter (the recipe for the starter is below)

Day 2 - stir

Day 3 - stir

Day 4 - stir

Day 5 - Add 1 cup each flour, sugar and milk.

Day 6 - stir

Day 7 - stir

Day 8 - stir

Day 9 - stir

Day 10 - Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Divide into 4 containers, with 1 cup each for three of your friends and 1 cup for your own loaves. Give friends the instructions for Day 1 through Day 10 and the following recipe for baking the bread.

After removing the 3 cups of batter, combine the remaining cup of Amish Friendship Bread starter with the following ingredients in a large bowl:

2/3 cup oil
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 to 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Using a fork beat by hand until well blended. You can add 1 cup raisins and 1 cup nuts (optional).

Grease two loaf pans with butter, sprinkle with sugar instead of flour.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 45 minutes to 1 hour (individual oven temperatures vary). Cool 10 minutes, remove from pans. Makes two loaves of Amish Friendship Bread.
Amish Friendship Bread Starter

This is the Amish Friendship Bread Starter Recipe that you’ll need to make the Amish Friendship Bread (above). It is very important to use plastic or wooden utensils and plastic or glass containers when making this. Do not use metal at all!

Ingredients:

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110°F)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup warm milk (110°F)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well.

2. In a 2 quart glass or plastic container, combine 1 cup sifted flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or the flour will get lumpy when you add the milk.

3. Slowly stir in warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Loosely cover the mixture with a lid or plastic wrap. The mixture will get bubbly. Consider this Day 1 of the cycle, or the day you receive the starter.

For the next 10 days handle starter according to the instructions above for Amish Friendship Bread.